Selections of Silver Birch’s teachings, on ways to overcome failures

When we face difficulties and trials, we should have the almighty spirit power (Power of God) and evolved spirits as our allies. Remember that you are never alone.

1. We lack confidence because we are human beings on earth; we are naturally prone to errors. We have fears and anxieties, and we often over-worry about things.

2. Therefore, instead of relying on ourselves, we should direct our full trust on the providences, hence the spirit power (Power of God).

3. To prove that you are not alone on your journey of life, think of the guidance from the past by your spirit guides. As Silver Birch promises in his teachings, we must have faith that the guidance will continue on.

4. In order to develop and maintain good relationships with our spirit guides, read Silver Birch’s teachings, and try our best to keep worries out of our minds, as thoughts of worrying interfere with the guidance from the spirit world, and prevent the spirit power from taking effect.

5. Do your best on the above mentioned, have your utmost trust (faith) on the spirit power, and try to live each day to the fullest. The spiritual promise will take care of the rest, so entrust and surrender to the guidance of your spirit guides. Trust the spiritual providence, more than you trust in yourself, and open your heart to the spirit world.

Next, we will review Silver Birch’s teachings, and try to learn how the guidance from the spirit world, and spirit power come into effect.

Spiritualist’s way of overcoming failures, by all means, is to have faith on the spirit power (spiritual providence)!

“Because the Great Spirit is all-powerful, and spirit is the divine power, I am confident that those who place their full reliance on that power can never fail.”
(P. 138, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

Then next, what is the Spirit Power?

“We are concerned that the power of the spirit, of God—use your own words but I call it the Great Spirit— . . .”
(P.117, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

“What you have to try to realise is that spirit power is the life fore, the stuff of life itself. It is animation. It is infinite. It is malleable. It can take a myriad different shapes. It is capable of an infinite number of permutations and combinations.”
(P. 125, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

=> Spirit power itself is the power of God; it is omnipotent. It takes various shapes and forms of manifestation, such as the energy of life (vitality), natural laws, wisdom, healing, guidance, inspiration, vigor, and miraculous events. It is all-powerful and pre-eminent.

Ways to draw in the spirit power

“The power of the spirit can sometimes perform wonders when the conditions are right, when there is no fear, when there is faith founded on knowledge, confidence born of experience.”
(P. 34, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

⑴ Worrying: Why even a small portion of worrying is not good for us?

“You have a physical body which is a machine. You are a spirit expressing yourself through the physical body. When you worry you close the sluice gates and the body loses the channels of its vitality. You cut yourself off from the source of supply. Until you learn that lesson, the body acts according to the natural law of action and reaction.
Worry inhibits your aura, which is your spiritual atmosphere, and disturbs the psychic vibrations. Until you remove the blocks the power cannot flow through. To attain self-mastery means a long and arduous discipline, a rigorous training, a constant refusal to allow your fear to dominate you.”
(P. 42–43, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

=> Imperturbability requires strenuous efforts (faith) to forbid thoughts of worries from entering your mind.

⑵ Spiritual knowledge: Now, how do we have our full trust on the spirit power?

“Rest your faith on the foundation of your knowledge. Each one of you has been led by the power of the spirit through suffering, through crises, through difficulties, to where you are now. You can look back and see how the finger of guidance has pointed the way. Have faith that, because of what has happened in the past, the power of the spirit cannot fail you, even though too often the human channel can fail the power of the spirit.”
(P. 137, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

⑶ Spiritual evidence: Interpret the footsteps of spiritual guidance (experiences) that have led you to where you are today.

As a pre-requisite to fulfill above-mentioned conditions (1) through (3), we must first attain spiritual awakening, thus we must become aware that our “real self” is the “spirit.” How do we attain it?

“The gifts of the spirit are submerged for a long time and can be called into the beginning of their expression only when the soul is ready. This is fundamental in the pattern, that the soul first comes into its own only when the depths of sorrow, illness, crisis, have been plumbed and it seems as if that nowhere in the physical world is there to be found any help.
You cannot find yourself when your existence is untroubled, when the sky is sunny and calm, and all seems smooth and placid. It is only when the storm rages, the thunder roars, the lightning flashes and the rain beats down that this wondrous spiritual awakening comes.”
(P. 55–56, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

=> We can see real life examples of spiritual guidance, within the process of life that leads us to realize that “the spirit is our real self.” This realization is also the purpose of life on earth.

Silver Birch knows very well that we are prone to failures and discouragements.

“The past is gone. Whatever mistakes you have made you must forget.
You come into your world to make mistakes, and to learn from them. Forget the past. It is the present that matters. Serve all you can in whatever form your service can take. Do what you regard as reasonable for your material provision. Don’t concern yourself overmuch about the future. Do your part and we will do ours and I can promise you that in such a co-operation there will be no failure.”
(P. 137, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

On what foundation does Silver Birch confidently promise that “there will be no failure”?

“Do not falter; do not allow at any time the slightest suggestion of fear to find a lodgment within your being. The power that has brought you where you are will not fail you. It cannot fail. If it could, the universe would cease to exist, for its motive power, its dynamic, its very sustenance would be withdrawn.”
(P. 68, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

The path of attaining the spirit power is in proportion to the steadfastness of our faith in the spiritual providence.

“Just go forward. Live for today and know that as the past proves the guidance of the spirit, so unerringly will the future enable you to give the service which you asked to perform.”
(P. 69, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

“If ever you become dismayed, and it is very human to be cast drown occasionally, just pause. Reflect on what has been achieved in seemingly miraculous fashion and know, because of what you have seen, the rest will follow. All that is asked is that you should discharge your responsibility with faithfulness and confidence in the power that has brought you to where you are.
Just do the best you can; strive for the utmost that lies within your power. There is nothing for you to fear. There are difficulties, but these will be surmounted.”
(P. 71–72, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

“The soul who knows has equanimity, calmness, resolution. It shows no fear, it refuses to allow anxiety to stay, it banishes the darkness of ignorance, superstition and worry. It knows that the power which gave it life, which rules the universe, which makes provision for all that breathes and moves, cannot fail.
What is important is that you should not fail the Great Spirit, so that your actions never betray the trust that is reposed in you because of what you have received, what you are receiving and for the wisdom that you have acquired.
Hold on to what you know. Be steadfast because of all that has been revealed to you. Face up to each problem, do the best you can with it, and forget it. Help will always come because those who love you, and are closer to you than they have ever been on earth, will see that you come through.”
(P. 49–50, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

=> We may think we know the best way for ourselves; but actually, it is not the case, when we see life from the eternal point of view, including the life after death.
Therefore, after exerting the best we can, do not worry about the results. Instead, simply trust the guidance of your guiding spirit and spirit guides; as they will guide you to the best path, just as they had always been in the past.
Their guidance is based on the spiritual perspective, to which we should surrender ourselves. In other words, we should switch our perspectives from geocentric to heliocentric. This way, we lay our complete trust in the spiritual providence, and simultaneously, we gain chances for real life applications of the providence.

“Just go as you are inspired. There are no cut-and-dried formulas for spiritual attainment. You must allow yourself to be led by the same power which has brought you where you are now. It has not failed you. It has brought you here where you are in possession of priceless knowledge which is more important than all the material possessions of your world. Just go forward, do the best you can wherever you can, and you will be guided and sustained.”
(P. 118, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1969)

Without hatred, there would be no love

— Life on earth is preparation for the spirit world —
“Remember you are spirits, and that the hours of your earthly life are only granted you to shape and form those spirits for eternity. Young men, who love to expand the muscles of mind, and wrestle in mental gladiatorial combats for the triumphant crowns of science, what are all these to the eternal conquests to be won in fields of illimitable science in the realms of immortality? Press on through earth as a means, but only to attain to the nobler, higher colleges of the never-dying life, and use mortal aims as instruments to gild your souls with the splendour that never fades, but which yourselves must win here or hereafter, ere you are fit to pass as graduates in the halls of eternal science. To understand that we are spirits, and that we live for immortality, to know and insure its issues (Spiritual progress); is not this, to Spiritualists, the noblest though last bright page which God has revealed to us? Is not to read and comprehend this page the true mission of modern Spiritualism? All else is but the phenomenal basis of the science which gives us the assurance that spirit lives (Proof of the spirit world). This is one great aim and purpose of modern Spiritualism, to know what the spirit is, and what it must do—how best to live, so that it may most surely array itself in the pure white robes of an immortality which is purged of all mortal sin and earthly grossness.”
(A passage from ‘What is a spirit?’ teachings by trance-medium, Mrs. Emma Hardinge. P. 113–114, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace, 1955. Spiritualist Press, London, England. Originally published 1878)

This physical world is just a school, intended to prepare us for life after death. The sole purpose of it, is for us to attain spiritual awakening and spiritually advance as much as possible, before finishing the current life stage here on earth. Next, let’s look into the learning process.

—Earth is a place of learning through comparison, including human relationships—
“Life moves through comparison. Light and dark are servants of the Great Spirit. If there were no light and dark, then dark and light would be the same. If there were no morning and night, then night and morning would be the same. If there were no love and hatred, then hatred and love would be the same. It is the comparison that enables you to understand the difference, but they are only opposite ends of the one pole. You cannot go through earthly life with a monotone. You must have light and dark; you must have warmth and cold; you must have happiness and sorrow; you must have the variety of experiences to enable the soul to come into its own.
Perfection is never achieved because it requires infinity to attain it. I hope I do not speak in riddles.”
(P.46, Guidance from Silver Birch, edited by Anne Dooley, 2006. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1966)

—Human is one pole—
Humans are born into the physical world, bearing the weighty dullness of the physical body. As a result, “one’s real self” is disguised; all kinds of desires like hunger, lust, material and monetary greed, possessiveness, superiority complex, jealousy, and so on, dominate us. We must often battle with illnesses. By possessing a physical body, human becomes a “pole,” which, selfishness is on one end, and altruistic on the other end. Hence, within one human being, there exist instinctive mind (selfishness) and spiritual mind (divinity), thus conflicts and complications occur, like good and evil, hatred and love, suffering and ease, darkness and light.
Human beings often show attributes which are the complete opposite of divineness. For example, one may show immaturity, another may demonstrate spiritual ignorance (materialistic thoughts), and yet another may display it in the form of self-protection (selfishness). To understand God, and “to enable the soul to come into our own” (P. 46, Guidance from Silver Birch), we must experience the opposites, which allow us to understand the differences between the two. We can truly understand and appreciate good health for the first time, when we experience illness.
Each one of us are God’s divided spirits, with the seed of divinity conceived within. We are on eternal evolution and progress towards perfection. As human beings on earth, we have just started as immature and incomplete spirits, on the journey of evolution towards perfection (God). We experience and learn from comparison of all kinds; the purpose of life on earth is to go through this process of gradual advancement from selfish towards altruistic. We can see that selfish and altruistic are the same pole, only on the opposite ends of it. Every road is en route towards the goal (God, perfection) on the other end of the road. The road of progress towards perfection is a gradual, everlasting journey; we never reach the goal, not even after we have moved onto the spirit world.

—Suffering is good, if the soul progresses from it—
“To many people in your world suffering is evil, pain is unwelcome, but this is not necessarily the case. Pain is just as much a part of the divine plan as pleasure. Without pain there could be no pleasure, without darkness there could be no light, without hatred there could be no love. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. They are the two sides of the same coin. Good and evil are fundamental and comparative. You have codes of morality in your world dependent on the place where you live. But it is not the same code of morality in every place. Our evaluation is based upon the effect on the soul. This is the important thing, anything which advances soul-attainment is good, anything which retards soul-attainment is bad.
(P. 140–141, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published in 1969)
“Never let us forget the principles, the fundamentals, for when we strive to ensure that these are attained then we are fulfilling the purpose of our being.”
(P. 143, Philosophy of Silver Birch)

—Human beings are born to make mistakes—
“If you never made mistakes, you would not be on earth. That is why you are there, to make mistakes and to learn from them. If you were perfect, there would be no need to incarnate. You are there so that you can learn, and that is part of the law of evolution.”
(P. 120, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published in 1969)

—We make errors, and learn from it—
Use of the free will makes us prone to errors. We easily fail and make mistakes, and consequently invite trials and difficulties of various degree, by means of cause and effect. In many cases, illnesses occur the same way. Life moves through constant rotation of the “cause” and “effect.” As Silver Birch explained in the passage above, as long as we are human beings on earth,
we “err” due to our immaturity; and “making errors” is even the prerequisite for spiritual growth. We make errors, and we learn from it. This is how the law of evolution operate on earth.
If suffering and calamity from errors and failures are courageously dealt with, and spiritual growth comes as a result, then the suffering is considered as “good,” and in accord with the purpose of life on earth. On the other hand, happiness and ease may be considered “bad,” if they induce arrogance and hubris, which lower one’s spirituality.
Despite our immaturity, we are moving towards divinity, characteristics of which are truthfulness, goodness and beauty (love, honesty, and harmony),
by leaning through the law of causality. If you are a spiritualist who capture all matter with the spiritual perspective and are driven by willpower and efforts to adapt yourself to the spiritual providence, then everything that you experience and encounter through life, will lead you to spiritual growth.
A simpler expression may be that, hatred and love are the opposite ends of one pole of emotion; one who is absent of the emotion of hatred, also lacks the emotion of love. The purpose of the comparison is to clarify the differences between hatred and love, so that we can truly understand what true love is. Hatred and love are linked together on one pole; they originate from the same emotion.
The aim of all this learning processes is to understand God’s love.

—Physical world is a school where we attain spiritual growth by experiencing polarity—
“Your footsteps have been guided so that you have been brought out of the darkness into the light. This is part of the process by which all true human development is achieved because of the law of compensation, as low as you can fall so correspondingly high can you rise. It is in darkness that you find the light, it is in sorrow that you find joy. It is when it seems that earth has nothing to offer that the spirit can begin to find itself.
This is part of the polarity, how the soul begins to come into its own. In the vast order of universal activity every facet of being has its ordered part to play. Storm is as essential as sunshine, darkness as light. It is in the crucible of suffering that strength is forged. It is only when extremes are reached that growth begins to be achieved.
I am not trying to talk in paradoxes, but this is how the Great Spirit, with infinite wisdom, has fashioned the laws of progress so far as humans are concerned. But it is just as true that whatever is needed is presented when the time is ripe. The difficulties, trials, tests, obstacles, these are all essential precursors to the soul being able to express its latent gifts. They provide the equivalent to the catalyst.
If you look back you can see how, in the time of what seemed the greatest difficulty, you were shown the way, your footsteps directed so that you could begin to learn how to fulfil yourself.
(P. 206–207, More Philosophy of Silver Birch, compiled by Tony Ortzen. Edition 2008, reprinted 2014. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published 1979)

—Providence of love that guides us to evolutional development—
The entire universe, including the spirit world, is penetrated by the perfect fairness of the grand and absolute providence. Good cause–good result, and evil cause–evil result of the “causality,” the “law of compensation,” and “second chance,” these are all providences of God’s love. They are prepared to suit our characteristics to easily make mistakes. Every time we make a mistake, we are given an opportunity to attain spiritual growth and evolutional development.

“You must recognize that this is an endless process in your world and in the whole universe, in itself evidence of the infinite intelligence which has devised the whole scheme, with wondrous laws that never fail, and which provide for every facet of being everywhere to be guided, sustained and regulated. All of us are within this scheme of infinite love, law and wisdom. So, go on making mistakes, learning from them and getting better spiritually all the time.”
(P. 120, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm, 1998. The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey, England. First published in 1969)

— Spirit and Evolution — Reviews on "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism" by Alfred Russel Wallace

Miracles and Modern Spiritualism (compiled in 1874) is a book containing three essays by Alfred Russel Wallace, a renowned British Naturalist, alongside Charles Darwin.
Wallace’s lifetime on earth perfectly overlaps the early developmental stage of modern spiritualism (Born in 1823 and died in 1913). The Hydesville incident, known as the birth of modern spiritualism, occurred in 1848. Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), an illustrious chemist, physicist and former president of the Royal Society, best known for discovering the element thallium; and Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940), an acclaimed British physicist known for inventing electric spark ignition and coherer used for wireless radio detector, both prevailed during the same period. Until just before Silver Birch started to speak through his medium on regular basis, thousands of cases of physical phenomena occurred across the world, which lead to a period of scientific investigation and confirmation of the spirit world. The academic essays contained in this book were written in such golden age of “physical mediumship” and “scientific examination” of the spirit world. The essays include many of Wallace’s own experiences with the physical phenomena; and as well, a multitude of examples of professors, scholars, men of abilities, medical doctors and lawyers, who conducted tests and studies in order to testify their suspicion and skepticism on the physical phenomena and spiritualism. Out of those who seriously and earnestly inquired the issue in a scientifically controlled manner, all, without exceptions, were convinced and satisfied enough with the results, and turned themselves into spiritualists. Wallace emphasizes that there are already enough evidence and proof to satisfactorily convince top class scholars and scientists. He adds that those educated individuals who had convinced themselves and became spiritualists, never overturned their belief throughout their lifetime. In order to thoroughly explain these facts, Wallace constructs his extensive arguments with enormous number of documents and illustrations, including the names of those prestigious individuals. He even states that authenticity of spiritual existence requires no further investigations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), well known as the author of The Sherlock Holmes series, have agreed, saying that it is insane that despite all these evidences, the spiritual existence is still not accepted.
Therefore, if you still have some doubts on the spirit world, or if you are unable to completely convince yourself, I strongly recommend you get a hold of this book and read it. I myself was able to fully understand the following message from Silver Birch for the first time, after reading this work by Wallace.

“That is not a fantastic speculation, it is a cold, calm statement of something which has been proved many, many hundreds of thousands of times. It is beyond the realm of disputation or controversy, except for those who are blind because they do not wish to see, or for those whose minds are so distorted that they can no longer recognize the truth when it stands in front of them.
“That is the first purpose, to provide a demonstration of spiritual truth, to meet the challenge of a materialistic world which says: ‘Prove it. We cannot believe any more; for too long we have been asked to believe in fantasy, in irrational doctrine, that we have turned our backs and we ask for that which we can assess, judge, measure, weigh, analyze, dissect.’
“The answer has been fully given. It is there; everyone can have it for himself. That is the foundation on which we build the rock of certainty which has stood and will stand all the assaults that have been made upon it. No longer it is a question of saying, ‘I believe, I have faith, I have hope.’ There are millions who can say: ‘I know. This fact has been established.’
“For the first time in the history of your world religion has been built on a bedrock of certainty. Men may argue about theological dogmas which none can prove, but of human survival there is proof sufficient to satisfy all reasonable men.”
(P6, More Wisdom of Silver Birch, edited by Sylvia Barbanell. 1945, Psychic Press, London.)
Wallace’s contributions and achievements in the theory of evolution had given him plenty of experience with professional scientific research methods, solidified his status as a reputable, prestigious scientific figure. I personally believe that Wallace’s mission, the true purpose of his life was to publish these academic essays, as “the testimony for the spirit world.” The scientific research methods that he was so familiar with, and his renowned status served as powerful tools in fulfilling his mission.

Nowadays, we hardly encounter the striking physical phenomena like the ones once observed commonly in the Western countries. Similarly, we do not hear about scientific tests and inquires of the spirit world being conducted by first class scholars and scientists. We may read about them in books, but for most of us, the stories of these phenomena do not ring the bell of familiarity. A heavy dining table that floats up sixty centimeters off the floor, human body drifting up in the air, objects appearing out of nowhere, and materialization of spirits for seance members to see and touch. Most of us have never actually seen or heard of these phenomena. Here in Japan, sometimes TV shows, in attempt to gain viewers, use supposed-spirit photography showing floating spirit-like figures, which would induce audiences into useless clamour. When compared with the great volume and number of the miraculous physical phenomena in the West, during the latter half of the 19th century, we can say that the cases observed in Japan so far seem to be next to nothing. Not limited to Japan, it is clear that the world today is not immersed in a spiritual environment. Currently we do not see mediums being invited to homes to hold seances and demonstrations of physical phenomena, which indicates that most of us, myself included, do not have opportunities to directly observe miraculous physical phenomena. If I were to have even one chance to observe with my own eyes, then it would be so much easier for me to solidify my belief in the miraculous nature of spiritual phenomena, and the spirit world. I believe I am not alone on this.
However, it seems the spirit world holds that the world requires no more physical phenomena. I sense that “providing proof and demonstration for the spirit world is already done and over with.” I even feel that further physical phenomena are purposely avoided. Let’s consider the intention of the spirit world in this situation.

We cannot grow into adulthood if our minds remain a toddler. They want us to grow out of dependency on mediums. We do not progress if our minds are captivated by the physical phenomena, because those phenomena are nothing more than demonstrations; they are simply measuring to attract attention and to strike awareness of spiritual existence. Wallace concludes his argument that already enough evidence has been provided for the spirit world and life after death, so it is time for us to move on to the next and more important step, which is to grow spiritually through learning the spiritual providence. Once we move on to the life after death, we would realize how blessed our life had been, if we were fortunate enough to have our goal of life set on spiritual growth.
However, currently, even if the photo featured on TV showed a real spirit, our interests do not extend beyond sheer curiousity.
As Silver Birch told us many times, we need suffering and ordeals, before we start seeking for truth by ourselves. We must suffer to the point where we find ourselves desperately powerless; and from there we struggle our way until we finally reach the spiritual truth. Then we become aware of our “real selves” (the spirit), and in turn, the real life of spiritual progress commences, the way of life we originally intended, begin to unfold in front of us.
This should be the royal road of earthly life.

Now I would like to introduce this slightly long passage from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The New Revelation. (It was written just prior to the commencement of Silver Birch’s seances.) Silver Birch’s message, and several abstracts from Wallace’s Miracles and Modern Spiritualism will follow.

“But the War came, and when the War came it brought earnestness into all our souls and made us look more closely at our own beliefs and reassess their values. In the presence of an agonized world, hearing every day of the deaths of the flower of our race in the first promise of their unfulfilled youth, seeing around one the wives and mothers who had no clear conception wither their loved ones had gone to, I seemed suddenly to see that this subject with which I had so long dallied was not merely a study of a force outside the rules of science, but it was really something tremendous, a breaking down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable message from beyond, a call of hope and of guidance to the human race at the time of its deepest affliction.
The objective side of it ceased to interest for having made up one’s mind that it was true there was an end of the matter. The religious side of it was clearly of infinitely greater importance. The telephone bell is in itself a very childish affair, but it may be the signal for a very vital message. It seemed that all these phenomena, large and small, had been the telephone bells which, senseless in themselves, had signaled to humans: ‘Rouse yourselves! Stand by! Be at attention! Here are the signs for you. They will lead up to the message which God wishes to send.’ It was the message not the signs which really counted. A new revelation seemed to be in the course of delivery to the human race, though how far it was still in what may be called the John-the-Baptist stage, and how far some greater fulness and clearness might be expected hereafter, was more than any man can say. My point is, that the physical phenomena which have been proved up to the hilt for all who care to examine the evidence, are really of no account, and that their real value consists in the fact that they support and give objective reality to an immense body of knowledge which must deeply modify our previous religious views, and must, when properly understood and digested, make religion a very real thing, no longer a matter of faith, but a matter of actual experience and fact.”
(P26-27, The New Revelation, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 2007. Cosmio Inc, New York. Originally published in 1918)

“There are new aspects emerging all the time. The physical aspects of mediumship are gradually receding, and the higher aspects of healing and teaching are gradually emerging because of a differing cycle of evolution in your world.”
(P118, Philosophy of Silver Birch, edited by Stella Storm. 1998, The Spiritual Truth Press, Surrey. First published 1969)

―Abstracts “Miracles and Modern Spiritualism” by Alfred Russel Wallace―
“Professor Challis, the Plumierian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, is almost the only person who, as far I know, has stated his belief in some of these phenomena solely from the weight of testimony in favour of them. In a letter to the Clerical Journal of June (?) 1862, he says: ‘But although I have no grounds, from personal observation, for giving credit to the asserted spontaneous movements of tables, I have been unable to resist the large amount of testimony to such facts, which has come from many independent sources, and from a vast number of witnesses. England, France, Germany, the United States of America, with most of the other nations of Christendom, contributed simultaneously their quota of evidence. . . . In short, the testimony has been so abundant and consentaneous, that either the facts must be admitted being such as are reported, or the possibility of certifying facts by human testimony must be given up.”
(P100, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)

“I maintain that the facts have now been proved, in the only way in which facts are capable of being proved—viz., by the concurrent testimony of honest, impartial, and careful observers. . . . They have withstood the ordeal of ridicule and of rigid scrutiny for twenty-six years, during which their adherents have year by year steadily increased, including men of every rank and station, of every class of mind, and of every degree of talent; while not a single individual who has yet devoted himself to a detailed examination of these facts, has denied their reality. These are characteristics of a new truth, not of a delusion or imposture. The facts therefore are proved.”
(P104-105, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)

“I feel myself so confident of the truth and objective reality of many of the facts here narrated, that I would stake the whole question on the opinion of any man of science desirous of arriving at the truth, if he would only devote two or three hours a week for a few months to an examination of the phenomena, before pronouncing an opinion, for, I again repeat, not a single individual that I have heard of, has done this without becoming convinced of the reality of these phenomena.”
(P117-118, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)

“In every other experimental inquiry without exception, confirmation of the facts of an earlier observer is held to add so greatly to their value, that no one treats them with the same incredulity with which he might have received them the first time they were announced. And when the confirmation has been repeated by three or four independent observers under favourable conditions, and there is nothing but theory or negative evidence against them, the facts are admitted—at least provisionally—and until disproved by a greater weight of evidence or by discovering the exact source of the fallacy of preceding observers.
But here, a totally different—a most unreasonable and a most unphilosophical course is pursued. Each fresh observation, confirming previous evidence, is treated as though it were now put forth for the first time; and fresh confirmation is asked of it. And when the fresh and independent confirmation comes, yet more confirmation is asked for, and so on without end.”
(P172, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)

“Now, what do our leaders of public opinion say, when a scientific man of proved ability again observes a large portion of the more extraordinary phenomena, in his own house, under test conditions, and affirms their objective reality; and this not after a hasty examination, but after four years of research? Men ‘with heavy scientific appendages to their names’ refuse to examine them when invited; the eminent society of which he is a fellow refuse to record them; and the press cries out that it wants better witnesses than
Mr. Crookes, and that such facts want ‘confirmation’ before they can be believed. But why more confirmation? And when again ‘confirmed,’ who is to confirm the confirmer? After the whole range of the phenomena had been before the world ten years and had convinced sceptics by tens of thousands—sceptics, be it remembered, of common sense and more than common acuteness, Americans of all classes—they were confirmed by the first chemist in America, Professor Robert Hare. Two years later they were again confirmed by the elaborate and persevering inquiries of one of the first American lawyers, Judge Edmonds. Then by another good chemist, Professor Mapes. In France the truth of the simpler physical phenomena was confirmed by Count A. De Gasparin in 1854; and since then French astronomers, mathematicians, and chemists of high rank have confirmed them. Professor Thury, of Geneva, again confirmed them in 1855. In our own country such men as Professor de Morgan, Dr. Lockhart Robertson, T. Adolphus Trollope, Dr. Robert Chambers, Serjeant Cox, Mr. C. F. Varley, as well as the skeptical Dialectical Committee, have independently confirmed large portions of them; and lastly comes Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., with four years of research and unrestricted experiment with the two oldest and most remarkable mediums in the world, and again confirms almost the whole series! But even this is not all. Through an independent set of most competent observers we have the crucial test of photography; a witness which cannot be deceived, which has no preconceived opinions, which cannot register ‘subjective’ impressions; a thoroughly scientific witness, who is admitted into our law courts, and whose testimony is good as against any number of recollections of what did happen or opinions as to what ought to and must have happened. And what have the other side brought against this overwhelming array of consistent and unimpeachable evidence? They have merely made absurd and inadequate suppositions but have not disproved or explained away one weighty fact!
My position, therefore, is that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their entirety do not require further confirmation. They are proved, quite as well as any facts are proved in other sciences; and it is not denial or quibbling that can disprove any of them, but only fresh facts and accurate deductions from those facts. When the opponents of Spiritualism can give a record of their researchers approaching in duration and completeness to those of its advocates; and when they can discover and show in detail, either how the phenomena are produced or how the many sane and able men here referred to have been deluded into a coincident belief that they have witnessed them; and when they can prove the correctness of their theory by producing a like belief in a body of equally sane and able unbelievers, —then, and not till then, will it be necessary for spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which are, and always have been, sufficiently real and indisputable to satisfy any honest and persevering inquirer.
This being the state of the case as regards evidence and proof, we are fully justified in taking the facts of modern Spiritualism (and with them the spiritual theory as the only tenable one) as being fully established. It only remains to give a brief account of the more important uses and teachings of Spiritualism.”
(P197-199, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)

“In concluding this necessarily imperfect though somewhat lengthy account of a subject about which so little is probably known to most of my readers,
I would earnestly beg them not to satisfy themselves with a minute criticism of single facts, the evidence for which in my brief survey, may be imperfect; but to weigh carefully the mass of evidence I have adduced, considering its wide range and various bearings. I would ask them to look rather at the great results produced by the evidence than at the evidence itself as imperfectly stated by me; to consider the long roll of men of ability who, commencing the inquiry as sceptics left it as believers, and to give these men credit for not having overlooked, during years of patient inquiry, difficulties which at once occur to themselves. I would ask them to ponder well on the fact, that no earnest and patient inquirer has ever come to a conclusion adverse to the reality of the phenomena; and that no spiritualist has ever yet given them up as false.
I would ask them, finally, to dwell upon the long series of facts in human history that Spiritualism explains, and on the noble and satisfying theory of a future life that it unfolds. If they will do this, I feel confident that the result I have alone aimed at will be attained; which is, to remove the prejudices and misconceptions with which the whole subject has been surrounded, and to incite to unbiased and persevering examination of the facts. For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, that everyone must find out the truth for himself.
It makes no claim to be received on hearsay evidence; but on the other hand,
it demands that it be not rejected without patient, honest, and fearless inquiry.
(P215-216, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Alfred Russel Wallace. 1955, Spiritualist Press, London. First published 1878)